Manchester City are strong favourites to take another step towards an unprecedented quadruple of trophies in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley.
A potential 13 more games lie between Pep Guardiola's men and a clean sweep of FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League to add to the League Cup they lifted in February.
However, with another seven matches to come before the end of April, Guardiola faces a headache in a familiar problem position.
Oleksandr Zinchenko suffered a hamstring injury in Wednesday's routine 2-0 win over Cardiff that restored City to the top of the Premier League.
The Ukrainian has deputised ably at left-back, despite being a midfielder by trade prior to Guardiola's arrival, while $68 million World Cup winner Benjamin Mendy has been sidelined for much of the past two seasons due to knee injuries.
Guardiola's patience with Mendy has worn thin and was tested again this week when the defender was filmed in a nightclub at 3.30am last Saturday ...

Injuries leave Man City with Mendy dilemma

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Paris Saint-Germain can clinch a sixth Ligue 1 title in seven seasons this weekend and complete the first part of a domestic double after booking their place in the final of the French Cup.
Thomas Tuchel's team will know ahead of kick-off whether they can round off their title procession with a victory at home to League Cup champions Strasbourg.
PSG would claim the championship for the eighth time -- and draw to within two of the record held by Saint-Etienne -- with a win at the Parc des Princes if Lille slip up away to Reims.
Yet Tuchel, whose side are on track to shatter their 96-point return from the 2015-16 campaign, denied recent reports he has signed an extension with PSG until 2021.
"I can't confirm, we should wait a bit," said the German, who saw his team agonisingly knocked out of the Champions League last 16 by Manchester United last month.
Marquinhos became the latest high-profile PSG injury casualty during Wednesday's 3-0 semi-final defeat of Nantes, joining Neymar, ...

Peerless PSG on verge of another French title

Top-ranked Jennifer Kupcho will take a one-shot lead into Saturday's final round of the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur.
Kupcho, the reigning US collegiate champion, fired a second-round 71 at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Georgia, for a five-under-par total going into the final round -- which will see women competing for a trophy for the first time at Augusta National -- long the home of the Masters men's major.
Kupcho, 21, was coming off a "perfect" first round of 68 that had left her tied overnight with 16-year-old Zoe Campos.
She was three-under for the day before her first bogey of the week at her 14th hole of the day, the par-four fifth.
She dropped another shot at the eighth to finish the day one stroke in front of Mexico's Maria Fassi, who had an eagle, five birdies and five bogeys in a 70.
"I started out strong and was hitting the ball really well," Kupcho said. "After the bogey on the fifth, I was just trying to get through six, honestly - and then the ...

Kupcho takes lead into final round of Augusta National Women's Amateur

Champions Juventus turn their focus to nailing down an eighth consecutive Serie A title in record time this weekend, days after a row erupted over racist abuse aimed at starlet Moise Kean in Cagliari.
Massimiliano Allegri's side return to their home comforts of the Allianz Stadium in Turin to host AC Milan after their trip to Sardinia on Tuesday ended amid scenes of chaos as Kean and teammate Blaise Matuidi were subjected to monkey cries and racist chanting.
Juventus could win the league title with seven games to spare -- the earliest any team has ever sealed Serie A -- if they beat AC Milan and nearest challengers Napoli lose at home to Genoa.
The Turin giants have an 18-point advantage on Napoli and have won both their direct clashes with Carlo Ancelotti's side this season.
"The eighth consecutive championship is in the 'loading phase'," said Juve captain Giorgio Chiellini.
"Right now, the 'uploading' is getting closer to completion. These will be two very important weeks for ...

Juventus poised to win eighth straight Serie A title in record time

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned Beijing to back off from a disputed island in the South China Sea, warning of possible military action if China "touches" it amid rising tensions over the key waterway.
Duterte, aiming to attract trade and investment from the Asian superpower, has mostly withheld his early criticism of Beijing's expansive claims to the sea -- a point of regional contention because trillions of dollars of goods pass through it.
But as the Philippine military warned this week that hundreds of Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels had "swarmed" the Manila-held Pag-asa island, also known as Thitu, the Philippine president spoke out late Thursday.
"I will not plead or beg, but I am just telling you that lay off the Pag-asa because I have soldiers there," Duterte said in speech to prosecutors.
"If you touch it, that's another story. Then I will tell my soldiers 'prepare for suicide missions'", he added.
Duterte has repeatedly said war with China would be ...

Philippines' Duterte warns China to back off disputed island

Environmental disasters linked to climate change are threatening the lives and futures of over 19 million children in Bangladesh, including prompting many families to push their daughters into child marriages, UNICEF said Friday.
"Climate change is deepening the environmental threat faced by families in Bangladesh's poorest communities, leaving them unable to keep their children properly housed, fed, healthy and educated," the UN children's agency said in a report.
"In Bangladesh and around the world, climate change has the potential to reverse many of the gains that countries have achieved in child survival and development."
Around 12 million of the children most affected live in and around the powerful river systems which flow through Bangladesh and regularly burst their banks, the report said.
Another 4.5 million children live in coastal areas regularly struck by powerful cyclones, including almost half a million Rohingya refugee children from neighbouring Myanmar living in fragile 

Climate change blights children's lives in Bangladesh

The family of an American teenager killed aboard the MH17 flight launched a court case Thursday against Russian banks and US money transfer companies for helping to finance pro-Moscow separatists accused of shooting it down over Ukraine.
In a complaint filed in US federal court, the family of Quinn Lucas Schansman -- the only US citizen aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur -- takes aim at Russia's Sberbank and VTB Bank, which have offices in the US, and the Western Union and MoneyGram transfer companies.
It accuses them of allowing large amounts of money to be sent to separatists in the Donetsk People's Republic, mainly from Russian diaspora sympathisers residing in the US and elsewhere, allowing them to acquire heavy weapons and to control the eastern part of Ukraine, from which the missile that downed the aircraft was fired.
The 63-page complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, is based on a 1992 US anti-terrorism law that allows American victims of ..

Family of MH17 victim sues Russia banks, US money transfer companies

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar ordered his troops Thursday to "advance" on Tripoli, seat of the internationally-recognised unity government, as world powers warned of consequences for military action.
Haftar's forces announced Wednesday they were gearing up for an offensive in the west of the country to purge it of "terrorists and mercenaries", having seized key areas of the country's south since the start of the year.
"The time has come," Haftar said in an audio message released Thursday by his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, pledging to spare civilians and "state institutions".
Dozens of militias have fought for control of the North African country since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
Haftar's forces have emerged as a key player, opposing the government in Tripoli and backing a parallel administration in the east.
On Thursday evening LNA spokesman Ahmed Mesmari announced that the force was "at the gates of the capital" and .

Libya strongman Haftar orders 'advance' on Tripoli

A New Zealand judge on Friday ordered the accused Christchurch mosque gunman to undergo a mental health assessment to determine if he is fit to face trial for the murder of 50 Muslim worshippers.
Alleged attacker Brenton Tarrant is facing 50 murder and 39 attempted murder charges over the March 15 attacks on two mosques, which shocked the world and rattled normally peaceful New Zealand.
The 28-year-old Australian will be seen by two health assessors to determine "whether he is fit to stand trial or insane", High Court judge Cameron Mander ruled during a brief hearing in Christchurch.
Tarrant appeared by audio-visual link from Auckland, where he is being held in isolation in a maximum security prison following the deadliest massacre in modern New Zealand history.
The suspect -- a self-avowed white supremacist -- sat motionless throughout the hearing. He was not required to enter a plea.
Several relatives of victims were in the court getting their first glimpse of the man charged with ..

Judge orders psych test for Christchurch shooting suspect

A top advisor to President Donald Trump said Thursday the United States is committed to private sector deployment of 5G wireless networks, brushing aside the notion of a nationalised system.
Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic advisor, sought to quell speculation that Washington would seek to nationalise ultrafast fifth-generation networks for national security reasons in view of the dominant position of Chinese firms like Huawei, which has been banned from US government contracts.
"I want to note how well we did on 4G, and we will apply the exact same free-market principles to 5G," Kudlow told a gathering of the wireless industry group CTIA.
"We will continue the process of auctioning off spectrum and letting the private companies run (the networks)," he said.
5G will herald a new level of connectivity, empowered by speed.
It is crucial for the future development of devices ranging from self-driving vehicles, to industrial robots, drones and other elements of the Internet of ..

US remains committed to private sector-led 5G wireless: Kudlow

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States and China could wrap up trade talks within four weeks after making quick progress on the potentially "epic" deal.
"We are getting very close to making a deal," he said ahead of a White House meeting with Chinese trade envoy Liu He. "Progress is being made at a very rapid pace."
"We will probably know over the next four weeks. It may take two weeks after that.... It's looking very good."
A deal would allow a summit between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said.
Earlier, Trump said that the negotiations were for an agreement covering the full range of US concerns.
"Everything is covered, there's nothing that's not covered," Trump said, referring to the scope of US demands.
"It's got to be a great deal," he said. "If it's not a great deal, we're not doing it." Trump said there was potentially for an "epic" and "historic" agreement.
Last year, Trump launched a trade war with China, seeking to slash that country's soaring .

US, China trade talks could wrap in four weeks: Trump

President Donald Trump has never been shy of sharing his dislike of wind turbines. But by suggesting this week that their noise could cause cancer, he stunned political friends and foes alike.
"It's an idiotic statement," Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, echoing an earlier assessment by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.
Addressing a Republican fundraiser in Washington, the US president -- who routinely questions the science of climate change -- launched a lengthy attack on wind turbines which he called "windmills."
"They say the noise causes cancer," Trump told the gathering -- a theory not borne out by scientific research.
A staunch supporter of the coal industry, Trump has taken to cracking jokes at his rallies about wind power, which accounted for some six per cent of US energy generation in 2016, according to the Energy Department.
"I'd love to watch a show tonight, darling," Trump quipped last week to laughs from the crowd in Michigan.
"The wind hasn't blown .

Wind turbines cause cancer? Trump's 'idiotic' theory whips up storm

Amazon on Thursday confirmed it is working on a project to deploy a network of satellites for high-speed internet service in underserved parts of the world.
Project Kuiper was first reported by tech news website GeekWire, which cited US regulatory filings disclosing the satellite project that could cost billions of dollars to complete.
"Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world," Amazon said in response to an AFP inquiry.
"This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet."
The filings described a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low orbit  at altitudes ranging from 590 kilometres to 630 kilometre, according to GeekWire.
The frontier of space is internationally agreed to be 100 kilometres above Earth, known as the Karman Line.
The Seattle-based ...

Amazon working on internet-serving satellite network

Three love letters from Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife Josephine, written between 1796 and 1804, were sold for a total of 513,000 euros  (USD575,000) on Thursday, the Drouot auction house said.
"No letter from you my adorable friend, you must have very sweet preoccupations since you forget your husband who, though in the midst of business and extremely tired thinks only and desires only you," the French leader said in one letter written during the Italian campaign in 1796.
The historically-themed auction run by the French Ader and Aguttes houses also included a rare Enigma encryption machine, used by Nazi Germany during World War II, which went for 48,100 euros.
The items were part of a vast sell-off by the French state of the collection amassed by the collapsed investment firm Aristophil.
It was shut down amid a scandal four years ago, taking 850 million euros (USD1 billion) of its investors' money with it.
The previous 14 auctions, held last year, brought in 26.4 millions euros.

Napoleon love letters to Josephine go for over 500,000 euros

Prime Minister Theresa May's cuts an increasingly lonely figure after her decision this week to turn to opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to break the Brexit deadlock sparked a torrent of criticism from Conservatives.
The beleaguered leader wrote to Tory MPs on Wednesday to insist that several dozen Tories' stubborn resistance to her EU divorce deal had left her with little choice but to look to Labour for support.
Britain is set to crash out of the European Union at the end of next week if it has not passed May's withdrawal agreement or found a viable alternative plan.
"This is the only way to deliver the smooth, orderly Brexit that we promised," May said in her letter, in which she also reneged on previous pledges to leave without a deal if necessary.
The outreach to veteran leftist Corbyn, a reviled figure among British Conservatives and right-wingers who label him a Marxist, has drawn fury from eurosceptics in her party.
Corbyn wants to maintain closer ties with the EU than May ...

Britain's May ever more isolated in Brexit endgame

President Donald Trump is preparing to tap former presidential candidate Herman Cain for a seat at the Federal Reserve, according to media reports on Thursday.
Trump is awaiting the results of background checks but hopes to make the announcement soon, the website Axios reported, citing unnamed officials with knowledge of the matter.
Cain would fill one of two vacancies on the Fed's seven-member board. Trump also reportedly plans to name economic commentator Stephen Moore, a long-time Trump loyalist, for the other.
By adding two supporters to the Fed, Trump could give greater weight to his views at an independent institution that has repeatedly displeased him.
But Moore, known for highly criticized views on monetary policy, also faces uncomfortable questions from lawmakers concerning unpaid income taxes and penalties.
A prominent Trump supporter, Cain previously served as a board member at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank and CEO of a pizza restaurant chain.
A candidate for the ...

Trump to tap ex-presidential candidate Cain for Fed seat: reports

Messaging app Snapchat, which is widely popular among younger users but has struggled to turn a profit since its creation in 2011, on Thursday unveiled new features including an integrated gaming platform, an expansion of its original series and new parnerships with developers.
"Friendship is more than just the things you chat about," said Will Wu, the director of product at Snapchat as he unveiled Snap Games at a Partner Summit in Los Angeles to highlight the new features for creators and app developers.
"Friendship is also about experience you have together." The six made-for-Snapchat games, including "Bitmoji Party," "Alphabear Hustle" and "Zombie Rescue Squad," will be part of a global gaming industry that saw USD 77 billion in revenue last year, Wu said.
"We wanted to build something that makes us feel like we're playing a board game with family over a long holiday weekend, something that makes us feel like we're sitting with friends, controllers in hand," he ...

Snapchat launches own multi-player gaming platform

The United States and its allies called Thursday for an immediate de-escalation of tensions in Libya and warned any military action would have consequences after strongman Khalifa Haftar ordered forces to advance on Tripoli.
"Our governments oppose any military action in Libya and will hold accountable any Libyan faction that precipitates further civil conflict," said a joint statement by the United States, France, Britain, Italy and the United Arab Emirates.
The governments said they were "deeply concerned" by fighting near Gharyan, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Tripoli, and "urge all parties to immediately de-escalate tensions." "At this sensitive moment in Libya's transition, military posturing and threats of unilateral action only risk propelling Libya back toward chaos," they said.
"We strongly believe that there is no military solution to the Libya conflict." Haftar's self-styled Libyan Nation Army has amassed around Gharyan and, in an audio message, he said the time had ..

US, allies warn against military offensive in Libya

MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced Thursday they had finalised their divorce, and that she would surrender 75 percent of the couple's shares in the tech giant.
MacKenzie Bezos also said she would give all of her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her ex-husband -- the world's richest man -- as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon shares.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon said MacKenzie Bezos now controls four percent of the company's outstanding common stock.
At Amazon's current share price of USD 1,812 a share that would be worth some USD 35.6 billion.
"Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness," MacKenzie Bezos wrote on Twitter.
"Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75% of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my ..

Bezos' ex-wife to surrender 75% of couple's Amazon shares

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose car import tariffs on Mexico if it doesn't do more to stop the flow of undocumented migrants and drug smuggling at the US border.
"If Mexico doesn't give the help, that's OK, we're going to tariff their cars," Trump said at the White House. "I will do it. I don't play games." Trump's tariff threat appeared to move him away from a previously threatened imminent closing of the border in order to punish Mexico.
Trump did not give a deadline for when tariffs would be imposed in case of Mexico failing to satisfy his demands for stopping illegal immigrants.
"If Mexico doesn't do what they can do very easily, apprehend these people coming in...,  we're going to tax the cars and if that doesn't work we're going to close the borders," he said.
But Trump said tariffs would also be imposed if Mexico does not do more to slow the flow of narcotics. On this he made a clear deadline of a year.
"We're also going to do something having to do with 

Mexico must crack down on border crossings or face car tariffs: Trump

MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced Thursday the couple had finalised their divorce, and that she would surrender 75 per cent of the couple's shares in the tech giant.
Bezos also said she would surrender all of her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her ex-husband, as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon shares.
"Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness," MacKenzie Bezos wrote on Twitter.

AFP

AFP

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